FAMOUS local entertainers have skirted around accepting responsibility for the negative impact that their sometimes profanity-laced music has on children, but several youth from primary and high schools across Jamaica say they can’t help but notice the destructive effect it has on young minds.

During this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange recognising Child Month 2022, five young people, whose ages range from nine to 19, all expressed disapproval of how easily accessible filthy music is to children.

Grade six student of Friendship Primary School Samoya Gordon shared that through overexposure to immoral music, children are at risk of being transformed into societal deviants.

“When children listen to these types of music, they are going to want to go and research. They want to experience what they see. When they listen to certain music, they want to be like what they are hearing; so they either want to become a druggist, a coke head, or a lottery scammer,” Samoya said.

Nine-year-old Tafari Wright also appealed to entertainers to maximise their creative potential to produce material that is friendly to all.

“Yes, it is affecting the children. There is a lot of stuff in songs that children are not supposed to hear until they are adults and they keep doing it in front of a lot of children. They need to stop it, because when children grow up they are going to do bad deeds and say things they are not supposed to,” Tafari said.

His twin sister, Ngozi, alluded that the music could very well be a contributor to some of the major problems in society that law-abiding citizens find difficult to cope with. She added that where some children will absorb and perpetuate what they hear in music and other material with widely disseminated adult content, there are those who become traumatised.

“My parents don’t rate it, so they don’t play that kind of music in our household. We are Rastafarians and I also think that the music is actually a problem because they are putting in a lot of violence. For example, the dancehall music from Shenseea and Spice, they put things in their music that children are not supposed to hear,” she said.

“When I go outside, in a cab, they just play these inappropriate language and music and they talk about drugs and stuff and that is really not okay. When children grow up, that is what they are going to do. They are practically impacting the children. Children learn from the entertainers. A lot of children are on digital media and not every child will have YouTube Kids. Some use the regular YouTube and sometimes they come across certain inappropriate things. If they make a mistake and type in the wrong thing, you could end up on something that children are not ready to see. It is very traumatising, and then children can’t even go to sleep at nights because they are still thinking about what it was they saw. They wished they were not even born to see that type of stuff,” Ngozi said.

In January 2020, Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison expressed deep concern that the results of a study indicated that among boys and girls who were charged for an offence, murder convict Vybz Kartel was a major influence to them. Gordon Harrison added that the entertainer was seen by the minors as the be-all and end-all of what they needed to strive to replicate.

On Monday, St Hugh’s High School sixth former and National Secondary Students’ Council Region One Assistant Vice-President Danyelle-Jordan Bailey told Observer journalists at the Exchange, “That’s not the kind of music my children would be exposed to. We have to ask ourselves the question, who are the role models that are setting the examples for our children?”

She added: “One of the things we fail to realise is that the family is the first unit of socialisation, so a child being in a certain space with their family and they are playing certain songs with profane English, they are going to soak that in because children are really like sponges. I don’t necessarily think that the music is the problem, because creators are going to create music regardless. I think one of the problems is that parents are not filtering what their children listen to. If I were a parent I would ensure there are guidelines as to what my child encounters in the digital space. It is a matter of ensuring that your child is not exposed to certain languages.”

However, Kingston College head boy and Jamaica Prefects’ Association National Treasurer Malikai Allwood said entertainers should realise their impact on youth and make the necessary adjustments.

“This conversation re entertainers has been an ongoing one. Public figures hold a keen spot in our children’s ears through the advent of social media. Of course, it holds a very profound role in our society. Now, scamming has become like a profession because it has been proliferated in the music. Public figures must hold themselves accountable and so should every influencer. You should be socially responsible with your platform,” he said.

Since 2003, tinted windows, lewd behaviour and sexual activity on public buses and taxis have been widely debated. The traffic department of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has also promised on several occasions to clamp down on lewdness and loudness on public transportation and prosecute perpetrators.

Despite attempts by retired Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis, who often applied a zero-tolerance approach to the practice, the problem persists. However, head of the JCF Corporate Communications Unit Senior Superintendent of Police Stephanie Lindsay said on Wednesday that cops continue to accompany teams from the Transport Authority from time to time, to check drivers of public passenger vehicles and prosecute them, especially buses blaring music in the public spaces.

“The police go out with the Transport Authority to have them removed. Once they breach the law, the police will catch them for violating the requirements of public transportation. In the past we have had operations where people have been prosecuted. It has not stopped but sometimes the drivers turn down the loud music when they see the police because they know they are not supposed to have it,” Lindsay said.